HRC To Boy Scouts of America: You Can’t End Discriminatory Ban with Half Steps

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organisation, today responded to a resolution by the Boy Scouts of America and its Executive Committee that would allow gay, lesbian and bisexual adults to serve as employees and volunteers by calling on the organisation to also require that all troops adhere to a policy of full LGBT inclusion.

“The vote by the executive committee to recommend that gay, lesbian and bisexual adults be allowed to work and volunteer for the Boy Scouts is a welcome step toward erasing a stain on one of our nation’s most storied organizations,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “But writing in an exemption for troops organised by religious organizations undermines the potentially historic nature of today’s vote.”

“As we have said countless times, half measures are unacceptable and discriminatory exemptions have no place in the Boy Scouts. It’s long overdue that BSA leaders demonstrate true leadership and embrace a full national policy of inclusion that does not discriminate against anyone because of who they are,” Griffin said.

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In 2013, HRC announced that its Corporate Equality Index, which rates Fortune 500 companies and the nation’s top law firms on LGBT-inclusive policies and practices, would penalise corporations that give money to organizations that discriminate against the LGBT community. Companies from Walt Disney to UPS have led the charge to prevent money from flowing from corporate coffers to organizations that actively discriminate against the LGBT community